Do not let their appearance fool you; these things are a favorite toy of Dark Lords and other evildoers. War Snails are not battlefield weapons, true. — they are instead extensively used to wreak havoc in conquered territories. War Snails can reduce a farmstead to utter uselessness with terrifying speed, as they relentlessly consume any and all vegetable material they can reach. The shell of a War Snail also makes them difficult to kill; it is proof against both magical and mundane attacks. In fact, the shell even lowers the mana level of the immediate area around the snail, which is why Dark Lords use them to secure captured sources of mana. Lastly, War Snails are just generally unpleasant things to be around; they’re not aggressive, but they’re hardly pleasant, either.

Killing a War Snail can be complicated. Salt does work, but there has to be a lot of it. Poisons also do work, but a War Snail can smell most toxins and knows enough to stay away from them. Arrows tend to bounce, but a ballista bolt will probably penetrate (when using hand weapons, aiming for the vulnerable bits is always going to be at least -6 to skill). Lastly, luring a War Snail into a no-mana area can work; the snail is an inherently magical monster, and will rapidly collapse and die if deprived of mana. Just be sure to thoroughly cook the creature afterwards; War Snails often have eggs in its flesh that can hatch themselves, eat their parent’s corpse, and make new War Snails. Best to be thorough.

How do they taste? Excellent, actually. War Snail meat tastes good stewed, baked, fried, and/or grilled. That’s deliberate: smart Dark Lords don’t stint on what they feed the troops. The idea is to have them motivated to fight for you, right?

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